A Promise Broken, A Promise Kept
by ALoveForWords
Summary: A conversation that happened between Newt and Tina after the events of Crimes of Grindelwald, to clear the tension that started from the miscommunications of a long distance relationship.


**A/N: Spoiler warning! Do not read if you haven't seen Crimes of Grindelwald yet! I have lifted quite a few lines and words from the original screenplay. SO PLEASE DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE WATCHED THE MOVIE.**

* * *

They were standing at the viaduct that led to Hogwarts. Newt, Tina, Jacob, Theseus, Nagini, Yusuf, Travers, and all the other aurors who were lucky enough to return to London with their lives. They all stared straight ahead as they watched the great Albus Dumbledore walk from the entrance of the castle towards them.

Newt looks tentatively from Tina then to his brother before he started to walk over towards his former professor, ready to return something that belonged to him. Behind him, Travers made a move to stop Newt from facing Dumbledore, still unable to trust the Hogwarts professor with matters regarding Grindelwald, but Theseus blocked his path.

"I think it's best if he speaks to him alone," he says, giving Travers a warning gaze, which made the head of Magical Law Enforcement nod curtly in defeat.

Newt continued to walk towards Albus, the pair meeting halfway at the center of the viaduct.

"Is it true about Leta?"

"Yes," Newt nods in reply, sadness starting to sink inside of him as the realization of the fate of his only friend from Hogwarts.

"I'm so sorry," Dumbledore apologizes.

Newt didn't know what else to say, he just gulped in a large amount of air before pulling out a vial that the niffler had retrieved from Grindelwald in the confrontation that had just happened only a few hours ago. He raised it to his and Dumbledore's eye level and asks, "It's a blood pact, isn't it?"

Dumbledore stares at the all too familiar vial, both amazed and tormented at the sight of it.

"You swore not to fight each other," Newt adds, a statement of fact laced in his voice.

Dumbledore looks up at his former student and nods in shame.

"How in the name of merlin did you manage to get – ?" Dumbledore asks, unable to finish the question as Newt pulled out his trusted, mischievous niffler.

"Grindelwald doesn't seem to understand the nature of things he considers simple," Newt states in amusement, thrilled that despite losing a lot of people at the amphitheater, his niffler had managed to retrieve something that might help them defeat the dark wizard.

Dumbledore then looks up, raising his hands to show the aurors the admonitors that they had placed on him to keep tabs on the spells that he casts. Theseus raises his wand and the admonitors immediately fall from the professor's wrists.

"Can you destroy it?" Newt asks, staring at the vial containing the blood pact between his professor and the dark wizard who was once his childhood friend.

Dumbledore takes the vial into his hands and says, "Maybe. Maybe."

The professor then turned from his student to face the magical creature inside his coat and asks, "Would he like a cup of tea?"

Newt chuckles at the idea of his niffler having tea with his professor, but despite the absurdness of the idea he replies, "He'll have some milk. Just hide the teaspoons."

Dumbledore chuckles along with his student as he starts to turn and walk towards Hogwarts. He noticed that Newt wasn't following him. He had simply dropped the niffler on the viaduct and watched as it and his professor walked towards the exterior of Hogwarts castle.

"Aren't you coming, Newt?" Dumbledore asks in curiosity.

"I'm sorry professor, I would love to," Newt replies. "But I have some business of my own to attend to."

He looks back at the people who were standing at the end of the viaduct, a few feet away from him, smiling weakly as he spotted Tina and Jacob who were both tired and weary from the Grindelwald's rally (and what happened after) before turning back to face his former teacher.

"Maybe another time," Newt continues. "I'll send my assistant Bunty to retrieve him. I hope he doesn't cause too much chaos while he's with you."

"I'll make sure that he doesn't," Dumbledore replies, the signature twinkle in his eye back.

Newt smiles at his professor one last time before he turns around and walks back towards the people who had just been through as much as he has, eager to start rebuilding bridges that he had broken in the past months.

* * *

Newt pushed the door to his apartment open, walking inside first and holding the door open for his two friends, allowing them to enter the warm confines of his home.

Tina, who had never been to Newt's apartment before, started to look around, from the high ceilings to the messy living room that was left that way in Newt's and Jacob's haste to get to Paris and track her and Queenie down.

"I'm sorry for the mess," Newt apologizes almost immediately, seeing Tina taking in the sights of his small but comfortable home. "Jacob and I had to leave on such short notice."

Newt waves his wand absentmindedly and the mess that was once there was not anymore.

"It's fine," Tina replies absentmindedly, trying not to think that the reason they had left so hastily was her.

"Newt," Jacob calls warily from in front of him and Tina, his face tired and laced with pain. "I don't feel like having tea right now. I'll just head upstairs and rest if that's okay with you."

"Sure, Jacob," Newt replies, hurriedly walking past Tina to stand beside his heartbroken friend, a friend who did his best to help him get Tina back. "You can take me room, it's the first door on the left."

"Thanks, pal."

Jacob turns from Newt and smiles at Tina sadly before walking up the stairs up to Newt's bedroom to get some rest and clear his mind.

Newt stands idly by the staircase, his head tilted up towards the staircase, staring after his muggle friend who had just lost the woman he loved. He was concerned for Jacob and he wished he could do something to help him, but he wasn't the only one who had just lost Queenie. Tina had as well. And despite all that, she was still standing in his living room, waiting to hear what he had to say to her. He would deal with his friend later, when he was ready to talk about what had just transpired in that ampitheater. Right now, he had to talk to Tina and clear the air. If not to win her back, but just to explain to her everything that had caused the miscommunication between the two of them in the first place.

"Tea?" Newt asks, when he finally turned around to face Tina.

Despite everything that had just happened, she still managed to smile at him before nodding. With a flick of his wand, Newt had managed to get the kettle on, as the pair of them waited for the tea to brew properly.

"Do sit down, Tina."

Newt moved from where he was standing and pulled out a chair in the dining area for Tina to sit in. Without hesitation, the auror allowed him to help her as she immediately slumped onto the table, her elbows propped so that her hands were cradling her face. She was trying to process everything that had just happened in the past few hours, wondering how her mission of saving Credence had turned out to be how she lost her sister and the very boy she was trying to save.

She knew when she was assigned to Paris to look for Credence that there was a possibility of her facing the dark wizard that she and Newt had captured months prior, but what she didn't expect was that she was going to lose her sister in the process. She and Queenie had been on the outs for months since she declared her disapproval of her relationship with Jacob. She was an auror after all, she was expected to uphold the law, not break it, that goes for her family as well. It didn't help that when she discovered what was going on, she had also came across that article in _Spellbound_ about Newt and Leta's engagement, which had sent her into even more of a rage.

It was all just a case of bad timing.

She had lost her sister to the dark wizard that she was trying to protect her from. And she hated herself for that.

"I'm sorry about Queenie." She hears from in front of her, where Newt had taken a seat. His voice shook her out of her reverie and deep thought, bringing her back to reality.

She raises her head from the table and locks eyes with Newt, immediately feeling that deep connection and electricity that had been there since they had met up in New York. It was the kind of electricity that could hardly make her breath.

"She made her choice," Tina replies sadly, a little anger laced in her voice, ducking her head back down, watching her fiddling fingers. "And I think I might have pushed her to his side by telling her not to be with Jacob."

She looks back up at Newt, searching for his eyes, hopeful that she'd find comfort in them.

"It's not your fault, Tina," he says trying to comfort her, fighting the urge to lay a hand on top of one of hers. "Grindelwald was just persuasive. He knows how to prey on people's weaknesses."

"But I could have been better, more persuasive," she argued, fighting the angry tears that were already streaming down her face, staring angrily at the table in attempt to avoid Newt's pitiful gaze. "I could have protected her from that silver tongue of his. I am her sister after all!"

She then felt the light touch of Newt's fingers on her cheeks as he began to caress them, wiping the angry tears that have stained her soft, red cheeks. His then tucked his fingers under her chin, raising her head so that she was no longer staring at the table but instead she was staring into his deep blue eyes, eyes so full of reassurance and hope that it made her smile.

She moves, wiping away the tear stains from her face, still not feeling entirely good about Queenie.

"So, why did you ask me over?" Tina asks, her curiosity taking the best of her. "Aside from tea of course."

Before Newt could answer, the kettle began to hiss. He simply waves his wand as the kettle hovers and pours its contents into a teapot. With another wave of his wand the teapot came hovering over towards them, along with two teacups.

Newt turned to sneak a peek at Tina, who was distracted by the hovering kitchenware and her own thoughts. She noticed that he was looking at her, so she moved to return the gaze. She caught him trying to act like he wasn't just observing her, which conjured up butterflies in Tina's stomach, making her smile. He did realize she was an auror, right?

By the time Newt and Tina were done trying to catch glimpses of each other, the tea had been laid out to their desire. Tina was the first to take a sip, waiting for Newt to answer the question that she had just asked him. She eyed him intently, trying to convey the message that she still wanted to know why she was here and not heading home to America.

"I – I've got something for you," Newt says a little nervously a few minutes later. He turns around towards the bookshelf to the far back of his living room and muttered, " _Accio!_ "

A parcel the size of most wizarding books wrapped in brown paper came flying towards him. The parcel lays flat on the table, just in front of Tina, beside her cup of tea. Tina looks at the parcel in awe, knowing full well what it is that Newt had just laid in front of her. She runs her hands through the rough paper wrapping and looks up from it to Newt.

"I know you have one already," Newt says nervously, not wanting to be wrong in his assumptions. "You've said you've read it back at the ministry. But this was meant to be the copy I would give to you had they allowed me to return to New York."

Tina wasn't able to help herself. She started to rip the parcel open, not even doing so delicately, excited to see the all too familiar blue leather-bound book that signified most of Newt's hard work. Despite seeing the book and reading the contents months before, seeing it now in the presence of the man that had written it just set up so many emotions inside of her she felt like she would choke. So much pride had swelled inside of her, a pride she had felt the first time she read the book. She looked up, glancing from the book to its author before running her hands against the smooth surface of the leather-bound book.

"It's much more beautiful than I remember," she says, admiring the golden text and intricate details of the book's cover. She then realized what he had said before she opened the book, "What do you mean 'had they allowed you to return to New York'?"

"I was trying to get back to New York to bring you a copy of this book, Tina," Newt explains, his eyes staring into hers, thankful that he now finally had the chance to clarify everything that had caused the miscommunication between the two of them. "Five times I've been to the ministry to get my travel ban lifted so I could get back to you and give you my book. But they wouldn't let me."

"When you stopped writing after my letter about aurors, I was afraid that I hurt you because of what I said," Newt admitted, feeling a little ashamed that he had called aurors 'a bunch of careerist hypocrites', knowing that Tina would take offense. "I thought you'd understand that I meant every other auror except you. I wrote you another letter explaining myself but you never replied. That's when I knew I buggered things up. I was desperate to get to you so I could explain myself, I know I'm not good with words, but they still denied me a travel permit. I thought I would never see you again until Jacob and Queenie showed up here."

Newt paused for a moment, immediately spotting the sadness that had spread over Tina when she heard her sister's name. He apologizes silently and continues, "It was then that I found out about the article in _Spellbound_. I'm sorry for that, if only I knew that was the reason you stopped writing I would have sent you a letter explaining everything. But I never read the wretched magazine because I knew what they wrote about me would mostly be lies."

Tina's expression sours. She felt ashamed that she didn't even bother to ask Newt if what she read was true. She felt ashamed because she did write a letter in response to his auror letter, but she didn't send it because she had read the magazine and the news of his engagement.

"Newt, I…" Tina starts, unsure where to begin. "I did have a response to your letter. I was ready to send it when the magazine arrived. I saw the article about your engagement and well, I…"

"You what?" Newt asks, hanging onto every single word that Tina was saying, hoping to hear the words that he wanted to hear.

"I got mad at you," Tina confesses, her eyes apologetic. "I tore up the letter I had just written and threw it away along with the magazine."

Tina lowers her head, unable to find the courage to look at Newt after she had just admitted being hurt by him.

"I never read the letters you sent after that," she admits guiltily. "And I was thankful that I got assigned to Paris, it was a chance to get as far away from New York as possible, a chance to get away from the one place that reminded me of you."

Tina's lasts word stung, she knew they did. But she needed to say them. If only to mend what was already broken between them. The truth shall set you free, as the No-Maj's would say. And she hoped that her confession would set the both of them free.

She didn't expect him to forgive her after what she had just said. She just wanted to be honest with him for once. Because she knew in her heart that had she been honest with him from the very beginning, she wouldn't be with some random auror she never truly loved, she would have probably been with him.

She looked up tentatively at Newt, trying to gauge his reaction. What met her broke her heart.

Newt's jaw was clenched, his whole demeanor different from the man that had come up to her in Paris. She watched him as he sit motionless on his side of the table avoiding her gaze.

A few silent moments pass between the pair, neither knowing what to say to the other after what Tina had just said.

"Newt, I'm sorry," Tina says sincerely after she couldn't take anymore of the tension that was palpable between the two of them. She didn't know what else to say, she just wanted to reach for him and just show him how sorry she was, to show him how she truly felt, but she couldn't. And it was all because of her inability to communicate how she truly felt for the one man that she ever truly loved.

"No, Tina," Newt says a little confidently after finally being able to collect his thoughts despite his breaking heart. "I'm sorry. I should have tried harder to get to you. I always prided myself with my ability to keep my promises. But when it mattered the most, I couldn't keep my promise to you."

He looks away from Tina, ashamed that he couldn't even keep a promise he made to her at the docks of New York. Self hatred was starting to fill every fiber of Newt's being, when he felt the gentle touch of the woman in front of him who had just laid her fingers on top of his that were resting on the table.

"But you did," Tina replies with a smile, hoping that it would reassure him that she didn't hate him, that she never hated him. She ran her hands against the book she had just received, admiring it in all its entirety before looking back at the man who had written it. "You gave it to me now."

"But that's not what I promised you," Newt protests, not moving his hands from where they were resting because he quite liked the feel of Tina's hands on top of his. "I promised to give you a copy of my book in person and I – "

"Did just that," Tina interjected, squeezing Newt's hand in reassurance. "Look, you may have not went back to New York, but you still gave me the book in person, Newt. And that's enough for me."

"Really?" Newt asks, hope starting to rise inside of him.

Tina nods, finally mustering up a smile and beaming at the man in front of her, a man she could finally admit that she was in love with. "Promises aren't always meant to be kept the way they were meant to."

"I don't know what that means," Newt admits, staring at Tina in awe, trying to figure out what she meant by what she had just said.

"It means that sometimes the way you keep your promises isn't exactly how you envisioned," Tina says with a smile, her eyes now bright as she looks at Newt. "And that's ok. What's important is you kept it."

Love begins to swell inside of Newt for the woman in front of him. She was everything she appeared to be and more. Compassionate, fierce, brave, smart, kind, and so much more. He moves his hands and takes hers in his. He then lifts them towards his lips and plants a kiss on the back of her hand before cradling them against his cheeks, her soft skin against his freckled cheek.

He then looks up at her, admiring the beautiful smile that had just spread across her face because of the gesture he had just made. "Tina, I'm sorry again. For everything I've buggered up between us."

"And I'm sorry," Tina replies. "For jumping to conclusions instead of asking you directly."

"Tell me how can I make things better?" He pleads with his eyes, intent to make things better and win her affections, her heart, her soul, the way that she had already stolen his away.

"You already have."

 _-fin-_


End file.
